powerOne Financial Calculator—Pro Edition

by CI Staff

Algebraic and RPN calculator for iOS with customizable spreadsheet-like templates for mortgages, finance, investing and more.

powerOne Financial Calculator Pro from Infinity Softworks is a calculator app for the iOS (versions are also available for Blackberry, Palm and Windows mobile devices) that helps you perform typical day-to-day calculations as well as more complex financial and investment computations. The app offers a collection of templates, which can be customized, to meet your specific needs. The app costs $4.99 and is available from the Apple App Store.

Calculate

Currently, powerOne Pro offers over 250 templates. Some are preinstalled, while others can be downloaded from the template library. The library of available templates is divided into several categories, including business, conversions, finance, health and fitness, investing, mathematics, and real estate. You can also browse the complete listing of templates, and there is a listing of new and updated templates. For each template there is a description of the calculation(s) it performs, as well as the various inputs required and examples of how it can be used.

When you open a template, some parts are shaded; these are the inputs you need to provide in order to perform the calculation. Within a given template, there is a help screen that gives an overview of the template and an explanation of the various inputs. These help screens make powerOne very user friendly.

For investing, some of the available templates include 401(k), Black-Scholes, investment return, bond duration, covered call options, and dividend discount model.

Custom Templates

For advanced users, powerOne Pro allows you to modify existing templates or create your own using the app’s scripting language. Within powerOne you can access online documentation that walks you through the template creation process (there doesn’t appear to be an offline version, which would be a nice feature).

History

A unique feature of powerOne is its History capabilities. As you use a template, the app saves a history of your calculations. You can name these histories, annotate them, share them with friends, colleagues, or clients, and re-calculate the template. You can also specify how long you want your history saved.

Sharing

Lastly, powerOne allows you to share templates with other users. From within the app, click the Send button, and an email message will open with the template attached. If the recipient is also a powerOne user, they can open the attached template within the app. The template will show the same data inputs you were using. In case the recipient is not a powerOne user, the email also includes the calculated results of the template.

Overall

While we admit it may be difficult to get excited about a calculator app, it is easy to get excited about powerOne Pro because it is far from an ordinary calculator. The app’s wide range of templates makes it useful for a variety of professionals, as well as investors. With the added functionality of customizable templates and sharing, the $5 price tag for powerOne Financial Calculator—Pro Edition is more than worth it.